2

My websites currently have a sitemap XML file that use the rel="alternate" to indicate there is an alternate location to my content in another country and language.

I am wondering what the best practice is. Should I create a separate Image sitemap XML file or simply add the image information ( etc.) to the current Sitemap XML file that uses rel="alternate".

I ask because there are 10 different websites so I already see the XML file with lots of information because of the rel="alternate". Is there a best practice or is either way perfectly fine?

Thanks in advance.

Edgar Quintero
  • 381
  • 2
  • 13

2 Answers2

3

You can split up Sitemap files whichever way works best for you. Google has no preference in that regard (past the general limits within a Sitemap file).

John Mueller
  • 7,451
  • 1
  • 20
  • 26
1

For one of my sites, which has a blog, forums, developers corner, and different section I have a sitemap for each of them, because of how massive each section is and will be.

Here is my small setup example of how I have it done:

  • /sitemap.xml for the pages that pertain to domain.com/page
  • /blog/sitemap.xml for all of the blog articles and pages
  • /forums/sitemap.xml for all of the topics, replies, and posts.

This works for my site, but sense your site has multiple domains, I see doing a sitemap for the search engine for that language? E.g. Google.de for Germany, and Google.br for Brasil.

Or just one sitemap for all of the sites. As John said, Google has no preferences, it is what you feel that is best for your organization.